Accounting Fraud

September 6, 2023

Fluor Corporation and five of its former and current officers and employees have agreed to pay $14.5 million to settle charges of improper accounting and delayed loss recognition on two large construction projects.  According to the SEC, the errors caused the company to overstate its net earnings by as much as 37% from 2016 to 2019.  SEC

June 21, 2023

Audit firm Marcum LLP has agreed to pay $10 million after an SEC investigation and order found systemic quality control failures in the company’s audit work.  Following an explosion of SPAC clients in the past couple years, Marcum tripled its number of clients, but the rapidly increased workload revealed the company’s failures to design, implement, and monitor a quality control system.  As a result, about 25-50% of audits reviewed in connection with the investigation were found to violate auditing standards.  SEC

April 11, 2023

Rishi Shah, Shradha Agarwal, and Brad Purdy, all former executives of Outcome Health, were convicted in a $1 billion scheme to fraudulently obtain funds from their clients, lenders, and investors. Outcome installed tv screens and tablets in physicians’ offices around the US, and then sold non-existent advertising inventory to be shown on the installed screens. Outcome billed clients in full, despite under-delivering on the contract, and inflated metrics to lie about the frequency in which patients accessed the tablets. Using inflated engagement data and revenue numbers, they raised $110 million in debt financing in April 2016, $375 million in debt financing in December 2016, and $487.5 million in equity financing in early 2017. The trio faces decades in prison because of their fraud. DOJ

August 24, 2022

Taronis Technologies, Inc. and related entities have agreed to pay a total of $5.1 million in disgorgement and interest to resolve allegations that the companies issued false and misleading statements claiming to have agreements and relationships with customers that did not exist or were exaggerated.  Taronis executives created fake and backdated orders, resulting in improper revenue recognition.  Based on these misstated financials, defendants raised approximately $30 million from investors in private placements.  SEC

August 16, 2022

Eagle Bancorp, Inc. has agreed to pay $13.35 million in penalties, disgorgement, and interest to resolve charges that it violated SEC regulations and GAAP in failing to disclose as related party transactions nearly $90 million in loans extended to trusts associated with its former CEO and chairman of the board, Ronald D. Paul, as well as tens of millions of dollars of loans to other Eagle directors and their family members.  The SEC further found that when questions about the reporting were raised publicly, the bank knowingly made false and misleading statements that the loans were not related party loans.  Paul agreed to settle related charges for a total of $431,000.  SEC

August 3, 2022

Surgalign Holdings, Inc.—formerly RTI Surgical Holdings, Inc.—and its former executives Brian Hutchison and Robert Jordheim will collectively pay over $2.25 million in civil penalties and disgorgement, for accelerating revenue in contravention of GAAP principles, and in violation of the ’33 Act, the ’34 Act, and SOX. Falling short of their sales targets, RTI shipped future orders ahead of schedule to “pull forward” revenue. This practice cannibalized future revenue streams, damaged important customer relationships, and kept investors in the dark as to the true financial condition of the company. RTI restated its public financial statements from 2014 through 2019 to correct errors caused by this practice. SEC, SEC

July 28, 2022

Jaeson Birnbaum, disbarred attorney and owner of now-bankrupt litigation finance firm, Cash4Cases, will spend 3 years in prison for defrauding investors, in addition to paying over $2.6 million in restitution, and forfeiting another $2.6 million in fraud proceeds. Birnbaum offered sham “Investor Security Agreements,” allowing investors to share in recoveries from lawsuits supposedly purchased by Cash4Cases. Birnbaum netted over $3 million in investors’ funds through his fraud, misappropriated client funds for personal use, and directed his employee to falsify the company’s books and records to show already-paid-out funds as still available to be pledged as collateral to new investors. USAO SDNY

July 14, 2022

Jesus Jose Mendez, co-owner of J&J Drywall, Inc., was sentenced to 3 years probation and ordered to pay $2.8 million to the IRS, and $62,730 to the MA DOL for evading income and employment taxes, and not making the requisite state unemployment contributions. From 2013 to 2017, defendants cashed over $16 million in business checks at check-cashing businesses and would leave cash-filled backpacks at their worksites from which to pay their employees. Meanwhile, deposits into the J&J bank account during this same timeframe equaled only $4 million, and deposits were frequently structured in amounts less than $10k, evading reporting requirements. Federal tax losses are estimated at just over $2.8 million, and the loss to MA DOL equaled nearly $63,000. Jamie Zambrano, Mendez’s business partner, is currently a fugitive. USAO RI

June 28, 2022

In response to SEC charges, audit firm Ernst & Young LLP admitted that its employees cheated on CPA exams and in continuing professional education courses, and that the firm withheld evidence of this misconduct during the SEC’s investigation.  EY agreed to pay a $100 million penalty and undertake extensive remedial measures.  The cheating took place on the ethics component of CPA exams and in courses required to maintain CPA licenses, including ones designed to ensure that accountants can properly evaluate whether clients’ financial statements comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.  SEC